MorphoSys (Martinsried/Munich) has named Lisa Rojkjaer (right) vice president and head of clinical development. She joins the company from Novartis Pharma, where she most recently held the position of head of medical affairs–hematology, Europe. Previously, she served as director of global medical affairs–biopharmaceuticals and later director, clinical development–hematology at Novo Nordisk.

“I'm looking forward to working with the entire R&D team at MorphoSys to execute the company's strategy and move antibody programs through clinical trials quickly and efficiently. Through both my academic and medical careers as well as my time within the pharmaceutical industry I gained profound scientific and drug development knowledge in hematology and oncology, which I will apply to advance MorphoSys's growing clinical pipeline,” says Rojkjaer.

Orexigen Therapeutics (San Diego) has announced the appointment of Mark Booth as chief commercial officer. He most recently served as president of Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America.

Affitech (Copenhagen and Oslo) has announced the appointments of Robert Burns as CEO and Alexander Duncan as senior vice president of R&D. Burns, previously CEO of Celldex Therapeutics, takes over from Achim Kaufhold, who is leaving the company, having successfully completed the recent combination of Affitech and Pharmexa. Duncan was previously senior vice president, biopharmaceuticals for Astra Zeneca–Medimmune.

Adamas Pharmaceuticals (Emeryville, CA, USA) has named Michael D. Coffee senior vice president, sales and marketing and Amy K. Patick vice president, research. Coffee previously served as chief business officer at Avigen. Patick was most recently vice president, biological sciences at Genelabs Technologies.

The board of directors at Amylin Pharmaceuticals (San Diego) has elected as chairman Paulo Costa, who formerly headed the US operations of Novartis. Costa worked at Johnson & Johnson for 30 years before joining Novartis in 1999.

DxS (Manchester, UK) has announced the appointment of Patrik Dahlen (right) as nonexecutive director. Dahlen is the former CEO of global cancer diagnostics company Dako. He currently holds board positions at Proxeon and Olink.

Achaogen (San Francisco) has appointed John C. Doyle to the newly created position of COO. He brings experience in managing business and financial operations, strategic and operational planning, equity financing, strategic alliances and R&D program management with companies including Genentech, Renovis and Tularik.

Victor Dzau has been appointed to the board of directors of Akebia Therapeutics (Cincinnati, OH, USA). He is the chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, president and CEO of the Duke University Health System and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and director of molecular and genomic vascular biology at Duke.

BIO Ventures for Global Health (Washington, DC, USA) has announced the election of Carl Feldbaum as chairman of the nonprofit's board of directors. Feldbaum has served on the BVGH board since its inception in 2004. He is president emeritus of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and also serves on the board of directors of Actelion, Exelixis and the Biotechnology Institute. He succeeds Rob Chess, chairman of the board of Nektar Therapeutics, who served as BVGH board chair since the organization's inception.

Jack Huttner has been appointed executive vice president, public affairs at Gevo (Englewood, CO, USA). He previously served as vice president of commercial and public affairs at DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol. Before joining the joint venture, he was vice president of biorefinery business development at Genencor.

Daniel H. Petree of venture firm P2 Partners has been elected to the board of directors of Sutro Biopharma (S. San Francisco, CA, USA). In addition, Sutro has named Henry Heinsohn, former senior scientist in process development at Genentech, as vice president of development and manufacturing, and Lesley Stolz, former vice president, corporate and business development at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, as vice president of business development.

Philippe Rousseau has been named CFO of Vivalis (Paris). He had served as CFO of ExonHit Therapeutics since 2002 and was a member of the management board from 2004 to 2009. Previously, he served as vice president of finance at Genset.

VistaGen Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has named Shawn K. Singh as CEO. Singh was managing principal of Cato BioVentures, one of VistaGen's largest institutional investors, and part-time president of VistaGen. Ralph Snodgrass, VistaGen's founder and former CEO, will continue to serve as president and CSO.

Roche (Zurich) has named Pascal Soriot to replace William Burns as the head of its pharma division at the end of the year. Soriot was appointed CEO of Genentech in April after its acquisition by Roche, and has been leading the integration of the two companies together with former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson. In addition, Roche has named Daniel O'Day, currently head of its molecular diagnostics business, as new chief of the diagnostics division.

Cylex (Columbia, MD, USA) has announced the appointment of the company's president, Brad L. Stewart (left), to CEO and chairman of the board. Stewart joined Cylex as president in December 2007.